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Everything You Should Know About Marketing Attribution

November 7, 2023
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4 min read

Everything You Should Know About Marketing Attribution

Digital Journal Blog

Marketing attribution is the process of assigning credit to one or more marketing channels or campaigns for driving a desired action, like a purchase or signup. Understanding attribution is crucial for marketers who want to measure the true impact of their marketing efforts and optimize their spending.

This post will cover everything you need to know about marketing attribution.

What is Marketing Attribution?

Marketing attribution refers to attributing credit for a conversion or sale to one or more touchpoints along the customer journey. It allows you to analyze which marketing channels, campaigns, keywords, or other factors influenced the customer to take a desired action. There are several types of attribution models, each with their own methodology for assigning credit:

Last-click attribution gives 100% of the credit to the last click or touchpoint before a conversion. This is the default model in many analytics tools.
First-click attribution gives all the credit to the first marketing channel that drove awareness. This helps assess early touchpoints but overlooks others.
Linear attribution splits credit evenly across all touchpoints in a conversion path. Each channel gets an equal share of the credit.
Time decay attribution weights touchpoints closer to the conversion higher than earlier ones. More credit is given to recent interactions.
Multi-touch or algorithmic attribution uses machine learning to dynamically determine credit for touchpoints based on influence. This model offers a more comprehensive perspective.

Why is Attribution Important?

There are several reasons why taking the time to implement attribution modeling is worth the effort for marketers:

Identifies High and Low Converting Marketing Channels – Attribution reveals which channels drive the most conversions for your business. You can double down on the high performers and cut ineffective channels.

Determines True ROI – By analyzing attribution data, you can calculate the revenue driven by each channel and campaign. This allows you to accurately measure marketing ROI.

Optimizes Marketing Spend – Since you can see your highest converting touchpoints, you can optimize budget allocations to focus on the campaigns with the best returns.

Provides Customer Journey Insights – Attribution modeling shows you the typical customer journey from first touch to conversion. You can use these insights to refine journeys.

Informs Targeted Campaigns – With attribution data, you can better understand your best segments and channels. You can build more tailored campaigns for each segment moving forward.

Challenges with Attribution – While attribution is very beneficial, it does come with some inherent challenges:

Cross-device tracking – Customers often use different devices across their journey, making it difficult to connect the dots. This can skew attribution data.

Delayed conversions – In some industries, the time between initial click and conversion can be very long. This makes it hard to determine influence.

Indirect influence – Early touchpoints like content and SEO set up conversions down the funnel. But they are harder to attribute directly.

Overvaluing specific channels – Certain attribution models disproportionately value one channel over others. This can inaccurately weigh the influence of channels.

Offline channel attribution – It’s much harder to track offline channels like TV, radio, and print ads. But they may still influence conversions.

How to Implement Attribution Modeling?

Follow these tips to implement attribution modeling for the first time:

Select a model that aligns with your goals – Consider your industry, sales cycle, and goals when choosing an attribution model. Perhaps you might test a few.
Use marketing analytics platforms – Tools like Google Analytics have built-in attribution modeling capabilities to get you started.
Tag campaign URLs – Add UTM parameters to your URL tags so you can track channels through the customer journey.
Integrate CRM data – Combine analytics with your CRM data for a single customer view across channels.
Evaluate frequently – Continuously review your attribution model and optimize as needed to improve accuracy.

Key Takeaways

Marketing attribution provides actionable data to inform your marketing strategy and budget. Make sure to choose an attribution model that fits your unique business needs. Use analytics tools and customer data to build a clear picture of channel performance.

Attribution helps reveal wasted marketing dollars and high-converting channels, so you can drive more sales at lower costs. With some effort to implement attribution tracking and analysis, your marketing ROI will improve significantly.

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